Amanda Tikkanen wrote:
My neice Jess (recipient of many hand knitted things from me and
crocheted things from her mama, the one who loves "made" things) was
over last weekend. Mom and Dad watched her and her little brother
while I went up town to study for my wastewater certification exam...
when I got home Mom had my current project (a dusty blue baby blanket)
in a plastic tote for safekeeping. She said "little ones kept playing
with it." I put it in my knitting tote and went to the BF's house the
next day. I pulled out the blanket and realized a little girl had
tried very hard to knit the blanket-- she really only missed the step
of pulling the yarn through the loop, but had several wraps around the
needles and got the rest of the steps right. She didn't drop any
stitches or anything.

So I'm wondering if she's too young to teach knit or crochet (my sister
can teach the latter--I still haven't figured it out) since she just
turned 5 last week. She REALLY wants to try, but I don't want her to
get discouraged if she can't do it "right" immediately. Would
something like plastic canvas be more age-appropriate?

BTW, I was 4-6 when Grandma first tried to teach me. I'm not positive
exactly what age, but somewhere in there.

My 7yo DD can *almost* crochet on her own, but can't get the hang of
knitting. My 10yo DD has no interest in learning either. My 5yo DS
has decided he wants to crochet...we'll see how that turns out.

Maybe teaching her with large needles and some non-slippery yarn (like
red heart super saver) would work. Perhaps use needles a size or two
too large so she can really see where the needles and yarn need to go.